It is a commonly held belief that individual giving is the sole domain of large charities that have the budget and capacity to design, resource and administer powerful and high-quality fundraising campaigns. However, an interesting fact is that email fundraising (seeking donations by sending an email to your supporters or potential supporters) has the highest return on investment of any digital form of fundraising.
With 72% of charity contributions made by individuals (source www.nptechforgood.com), the approach of encouraging individual donations is an area overlooked by many small charities across the UK who feel it is ‘not for them’. Perhaps it feels like too big a mountain to climb, or that it could not be done properly with such limited resources. Often enough, in our experience, its simply not seen as a priority.
However, it would not take a small charity much to test the water and dip their toe into this area of fundraising. Reflecting on the last two years of first Brexit and now Covid-19, it feels like there is a stronger sense of community and localism than ever- maybe now is the time to tap into the potential of localised individual giving?
6 Step Introduction to Individual Giving for Small Charities
A simple strategy for a small and poorly resourced charity could be to:
- Integrate an online donation function into your website (there are many companies that provide this merchant service, most taking a small commission). Some examples are www.enthuse.com and www.justgiving.com.
- Make sure that the donation route is simple to navigate, with a clear call for action that takes you directly to the donation page. It is useful to suggest donation amounts linked to your charities activities, eg. £50 will pay for 5 older and isolated people to attend a luncheon club.
- Consider how you will drive potential donors to your donation page. Video content is fast becoming the most effective means of engagement, and this doesn’t necessarily need to be expensive to produce. Consider how you can make inhouse video content about your work- i-phones can produce high quality films- just keep them short and compelling. There are also multiple software packages to help you edit your films to make them look sharp and professional. www.Openshot.org or even the free ‘I-Movie’ app can considerably enhance and improve your films, and both are free. Make sure you have a compelling call to action message- tell people about the impact of your work, the difference it is making and create an emotional connection with the reader/viewer.
- Alternatively, if you feel that this is beyond your reach at the moment, write a compelling email including feedback from your beneficiaries and photographs of your work. Explain your need and if necessary or appropriate don’t be afraid to use a sense of jeopardy- what will happen if people do not donate?
- Make sure you are collecting email addresses on a continual basis from people that use your service. All stakeholders are potential donors- families and friends of beneficiaries, partner organisations, local communities, users of your services, suppliers, or maybe people you have never met but have an interest in your cause. Yes, GDPR rules make it more complicated than it used to be, and you will need to make sure that you are complying with GDPR in any of your communications, so make sure that you have a strategy for GDPR compliance that underpins your saving of data and communications.
- Different ways of inviting people to join your mailing list, could include sign up forms in your premises or at events, having a sign-up function on your website or using your Facebook page to ask people to sign up. GDPR compliant collection of email addresses can be one of your most valuable commodities in terms of fundraising, creating ‘warm’ potential donors with whom you can begin to build a relationship.
- The website www.fiverr.com features freelance designers, film makers and copywriters from all over the world that can edit your films, or make animated professional films at very low cost.
- For top tips on creating an effective donation pages visit https://topnonprofits.com/examples/donation-page-examples-best-practices/
If you have experience of setting up an Individual Giving scheme for a small charity we’d love to hear your comments about your experience!